A “right-wing extremist” has been jailed for possessing manuals on knife fighting and making explosives.

Nicholas Brock became an extremist by browsing online, police said

Police found a hoard of Nazi-era daggers, far-right literature and a framed Ku Klux Klan certificate in Nicholas Brock’s bedroom in Berkshire.

The 53-year-old was found guilty in March of three counts of possessing materials which could be of use in preparing terrorist acts.

He was jailed for four years at Kingston-upon-Thames Crown Court.

Brock’s bedroom contained a hoard of Nazi-era daggers

Brock’s collection included a copy of Hitler’s Mein Kampf manifesto and a video of a white supremacist attack on two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, in 2019, the court heard.

Prosecutors described the hoard as materials suitable for “an undergraduate degree” in the far-right.

The stash and a hard drive containing the terrorist manuals were found in 2018 at Brock’s home in Maidenhead, which he shared with his mother.

‘Toxic ideology’

Judge Peter Lodder QC told him: “It is clear from the wide range of other material found on your computer and your hard drive that you are a right-wing extremist.

“Your enthusiasm for this repulsive and toxic ideology is demonstrated by the graphic, racist, Islamophobic and white supremacist iconography which you have stored.”

Edward Butler, defending, said there was no evidence his client intended to carry out an attack.

Brock, of Lancaster Road, previously told police he had an interest in military memorabilia which stemmed from his love of Action Man as a child.

Police said Brock was likely to have been self-radicalised through browsing online.

Det Ch Supt Kath Barnes, head of Counter Terrorism Policing South East, said: “The material Brock had in his possession is dangerous and concerning.

“He had books which would provide techniques on how to fight, assisting someone who was potentially preparing a terrorist act.”

The defendant was ordered to serve another year on licence after his release from prison.

BBC News

A man who sprayed offensive graffiti and swastikas on a mosque in Moray has been jailed for 14 months.

Mark Macpherson, 44, admitted a racially aggravated act of malicious mischief carried out in Elgin.

The incident happened in the town’s South Street in May 2019.

Sheriff Sara Matheson told Inverness Sheriff Court: “The north of Scotland has a long history of tolerance between religions and is friendly and welcoming to all.”

Fiscal depute Robert Weir said Lansana Bangura, the chairman of the Elgin mosque, had locked the building after prayers in the early morning of 20 May.

A witness later heard a noise similar to an aerosol can being sprayed and saw a hooded man.

Police found swastikas sprayed on windows and walls alongside offensive language.

Macpherson was identified through CCTV.

When interviewed by police after being arrested and asked if he could have done it, Macpherson, of Elgin, replied: “To be honest, I don’t know’.”

Defence solicitor Stephen Carty said his client had a heavy addiction to alcohol and drugs.

‘No place in society’

“What we have here is drunken, foolish and abusive behaviour which is a matter of great shame to him”, he said.

“He does not hold these views.”

Sheriff Matheson said: “This act seriously offends and displays ignorance and hate which has no place in our society.

“Any racial prejudice will be treated very seriously by the court.”

The mosque’s Mr Bangura said at the time that such acts did not “unscrew the bond which we have with our community”.

Moray Council had the “deeply offensive” graffiti removed.

BBC News

Nicholas Brock, 53, is covered in neo-Nazi tattoos while his bedroom is covered in SS memorabilia. He was convicted after police found he had manuals on how to kill people

A right wing extremist covered in neo-Nazi tattoos has been jailed after he was caught with manuals on how to kill people with knives and make homemade bombs.

Nicholas Brock, 53, decorated his bedroom with SS memorabilia and was convicted of three counts of possessing documents useful to a terrorist after a trial.

The specific documents the charges relate to were found organised into a folder labelled ‘army military manuals’ on an external hard drive seized by police in January 2018.

The documents were The Anarchists’ Cookbook version 2000, which contains bomb recipes, a document on knife-fighting techniques and a US military manual containing further instruction on fatal knife attacks.

But a treasure trove of far right material was found at the home Brock shared with his mother in Maidenhead, Berkshire, including literature, weapons, bomb recipes and violent videos.

Sentencing him today, Judge Peter Lodder QC said: “It is clear by the wide range of other material that you are a right wing extremist.

“Your enthusiasm for this repulsive and toxic ideology is demonstrated by the graphic, racist, Islamophobic and white supremacist iconography which you have stored and appear to share with others of similar views.

“Your bedroom was decorated with SS memorabilia and a framed KKK recognition certificate in your own name was hanging on your wall.

“Your degree of devotion is indicated by your decision to cover your upper body and arms with tattoos of symbols associated with neo-Nazis.

“I do not sentence you for your political views, but the extremity of those views informs me about your criminality and the assessment of dangerousness.”

Jurors at Brock’s trial back in March heard police discovered Hitler’s Mein Kampf and books about owning a black slave and the neo-Nazi group Hail Combat 18 in Brock’s collection.

A variety of Second World War knives and daggers bearing Nazi and SS insignias and recipes for homemade bombs annotated with hand-drawn swastikas were found, the court heard.

Analysis of electronic devices found photos of a man “believed to be Brock wearing a balaclava, holding a large firearm and posing in front of a swastika flag in his bedroom”, prosecutors said.

There was also a snap of Brock wearing a ‘Make America Great Again’ cap, associated with Donald Trump ’s 2016 presidential campaign, and standing in front of the Confederate flag.

The Nazi flag, which bore an eagle and swastika, was found on Brock’s wall during the police search, as well as an SS wall plaque, Nazi propaganda poster and a framed Ku Klux Klan certificate of recognition with his name on it.

A Nazi badge was also found on his bedside table.

Videos of “extreme violence” found on devices included footage taken by the 2019 Christchurch mosque shooter Brenton Tarrant as he shot 51 people dead in Newzealand, beheadings and KKK cross burnings.

The jury heard Brock has tattoos of “Nazi figures from the 1930s and 40s”, an SS Totenkopf skull and swastikas on his upper body.

In a police interview, Brock claimed he was a military collector and denied downloading the documents.

He said his friends would sometimes come round to play Playstation games in his bedroom and he would often be out of the room “making a cup of tea or a sandwich”.

Ms Gargitter told the sentencing hearing Brock has a conviction for burglary and theft dating back to when he was 19, and more recently for two counts of racially aggravated harassment in 2017.

He was handed a community order at Berkshire Magistrates’ Court for the harassment after sending racist messages and memes to an ex-partner relating to her mixed-race children – one of whom was just eight-years-old.

In mitigation Edward Butler, defending, said the offences were “documentary”.

He said: “There are cases where those documents are possessed with a particular plan or purpose in mind.

“This is not such a case. These documents were three of a vast quantity of data, much of it macabre and concerning in nature, obviously, but plainly accumulated over many years.”

He said there was “no evidence or suggestion” Brock was a member of any terrorist organisation or “intended to participate in any form of terrorist act”.

Mr Butler said the material was “hoarded” and the idea his client would participate in a knife attack was “fanciful” as he did not have the “physical wherewithal or ability” due to health conditions.

He said Brock was a “vulnerable defendant” who will find prison life “very challenging”.

Judge Lodder said he did not find Brock met the ‘dangerousness’ provisions in the law – which would have meant he was eligible for a longer prison sentence.

He said: “It is argued that although the pre-sentence report finds there is a high risk of serious harm for you, there is a low likelihood of re-offending.

“I’m concerned about what the report correctly identifies as high levels of immersion in ideological extremism but I find your situation is borderline.”

Brock, of Lancaster Road, Maidenhead, was jailed for four years with a licence extension of one year.

He will not be released until he has served at least two thirds of the sentence.

Daily Mirror

Nimmo was a racist with an “Islamophobic mindset who was clearly dangerous”, the court heard

An internet troll who encouraged the murder of Muslims has been jailed for a string of terrorism offences.

John Nimmo also distributed the Anarchist Cookbook – a terrorist manual on how to make explosives.

At Newcastle Crown Court, he admitted seven offences including encouraging terrorism and distributing material likely to stir up religious hatred.

Nimmo, 32, of Osborne Avenue, South Shields, was jailed for 10 years and two months.

He also admitted possessing and disseminating terrorist material, possessing a prohibited firearm and breaching a Criminal Behaviour Order linked to a previous offence.

Nimmo served prison sentences in 2014 and 2017 for sending abuse online aimed at Liverpool Wavertree Labour MP Luciana Berger, among other victims.

‘Racist mindset’

The court heard how he encouraged the murder of Muslims on his Gab social media account.

Judge Robert Adams said: “Nimmo has a racist and Islamophobic mindset – clearly, he’s dangerous”.

Prosecutor Matthew Brook told the court officers from Northumbria Police were tasked to regularly inspect Nimmo’s computer and devices as a result of the Criminal Behaviour Order.

He said Nimmo had posted illegal material in 2019 on social media, including calling Muslims “scum” and saying “a spring clean is in order”.

The hearing heard that another man Ciaran Anderson, 23, approached Dale Elliott, 29, and Nimmo in April 2020 asking whether they could make him a gun.

But after getting cold feet, Anderson rang police claiming to have heard a firearm discharged on Osborne Avenue in South Shields, where Elliott and Nimmo were neighbours.

Police found two homemade “slam guns” and home-made ammunition inside Elliott’s home. They also found a video of Elliott discharging a slam gun and Nimmo holding one.

Weapons were found during searches of the men’s addresses

Anderson admitted conspiracy to transfer a prohibited firearm and was jailed for three years and four months.

Elliott pleaded guilty to possessing a firearm and ammunition without a firearms certificate and was jailed for five years and seven months.

Benjamin Newton, defending, said Nimmo had mental health problems and had been diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder.

He said: “The internet for him is almost like a drug that brings out the worst in him.

“There was no real chance anyone was going to act on his words.”

BBC News

A University of Cambridge maths graduate with an “extreme right-wing mindset” has been jailed for possessing a bomb-making instructional manual.

Oliver Bel was arrested after making racist and anti-Semitic comments online and posting on Facebook that he wanted to “go on a killing spree”.

Police then searched his home and found a copy of the Anarchist Cookbook.

The 24-year-old, of Wilmslow, Cheshire, was jailed for two years at Manchester Crown Court.

Bel declined to give evidence in his trial and was convicted in April of collecting information useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism.

The court was told he ordered the book after he had been in contact with a member of banned far-right group National Action, who he had asked for advice on how to network with other far-right individuals and how to take action.

‘Arrogant young man’

He was reported to authorities in January 2019 while studying at Cambridge, after making anti-Semitic comments and posting about Nazi leader Adolf Hitler in a Facebook group.

He subsequently met with a counter-terrorism officer from the government’s Prevent programme, but was subsequently reported again in July 2019 after posting on the social media site that he wanted “go on a spree”.

Analysis of his phone found other racist and anti-Semitic comments and a statement about how he wanted “to go on a killing spree”.

Police searched his then home in Salford four months later, shortly after anti-fascist group Hope Not Hate published an article which revealed Bel’s beliefs, and found the manual.

At trial, his claim that he had the book for legitimate intellectual interest was rejected by the jury.

Sentencing him, Judge Alan Conrad QC told him the evidence heard had “showed your extreme right-wing mindset”.

He said Bel’s “pronouncements were abhorrent to all right-thinking people, as were the vile images that you kept on your mobile telephone”.

He told Bel that he believed his diagnosis of Asperger’s syndrome was “something upon which you play when it suits you” and said he was an “arrogant young man” who was “blessed with high intelligence [but] whose heart is filled with so much hatred”.

Speaking after sentencing, Hope Not Hate’s Matthew Collins said Bel threatened his organisation “with legal action and with violence” after they exposed him.

“His sentencing today is welcome, but should also be a reminder of the continued growth in the threat of far-right terror,” he added.

BBC News

Here are the Judges statement when he was sentencing Bel.
R v OB 21-May-2021 15-37-06(1)

A Surrey man who ran a number of extreme right wing group chats and shared how to make explosives and firearms online has been convicted.

Michael Nugent, 37, of Ashford, has been convicted of terrorism offences after showing people how to deliver bombs as Amazon packages.

According to Met Police, Nugent used different personas in the chat rooms, and expressed his racist views and hatred of ethnic minorities.

But the investigation by the Met’s Counter Terrorism Command linked the various online accounts to Nugent’s real-world identity and he was arrested and convicted as a result.

Following his arrest on August 19, 2020, he was interviewed over seven days but gave no comment.

Nugent was initially charged with 12 Terrorism Act offences and first appeared in court on August 25, where a further six charges were subsequently added.

On May 13, 2021, Nugent pleaded guilty to five counts of dissemination of terrorist publications and 11 counts of possession of a document containing information likely to be useful to a person preparing or committing an act of terrorism.

He pleaded not guilty to two counts of encouraging terrorism, and these charges were ordered to lie on file.

Commander Richard Smith, who leads the Met’s Counter Terrorism Command, said: “Nugent was an active member of internet chat rooms where he freely shared his abhorrent extremist views with others.

“He sought to influence and encourage other members to commit acts of violence, and passed on manuals detailing how to produce deadly weapons and explosive devices.

“However, he was stopped when he was arrested by counter terrorism officers.

“The police investigation unearthed a huge amount of incriminating evidence which forced Nugent to admit to his offences before trial.

“This is another case which shows how harmful online extremism is.

“That is why it is important that anyone who believes that they have a friend or loved one who has been or is vulnerable to radicalisation seeks help.”

Nugent is due to be sentenced next month on June 23.

Surry Comet

A racist who claimed to be ‘more extreme than Tommy Robinson’ has been jailed after tweeting calling for ‘civil war’.

White supremacist Tobias Powell, 33, sent a series of tweets including showing a photo of his Nazi tattoo and and said: ‘Civil war is the only way… at first it will be a blood bath’.

Portsmouth Crown Court heard one image posted online showed his dog with a paw raised alongside text that said: ‘Sieg heil.’

Drug addict Powell shared ‘extreme right-wing language’ and published ‘anti-Islamist and anti-Semitic posts and retweets,’ prosecutor Amy Packham said.

Counter-terror investigators found a mass of far-right material at his home in Pagham in a February 2019 raid.

Investigators found Powell had set up his Apple ID using the name Adolph Hitler, and played the football game Fifa with ‘Nazi’ on the back of a player’s shirt. He named the player using a racist epithet and ‘killer’.

He also shared tweets by former American president Donald Trump and far-right figures including Nick Griffin, Tommy Robinson and American white supremacist David Lane, Ms Packham said

His posts online also showed support for proscribed far-right group National Action.

An email found by police revealed he claimed to have done ‘10 years of research’ and as a ‘white lad’ had now decided to ‘become active in a movement’ committed to ‘furthering the white race’.

“I have been trying to find a serious and like-minded group of brothers I can join and fight alongside,” he said.

“I have no problem shooting off a kneecap or scalping a radical Imam or removing the penis of one of the (men involved in child abuse in Rotherham).”

Powell, whose barrister suggested he tweeted while in a ‘twisted mind’ high on cocaine and drunk, also posted an image of a tattoo on his right thigh showing the Celtic Cross, Swastika and Iron Cross.

In the tweets posted between July and October in 2018 he also called murdered MP Jo Cox an ‘alleged open traitor and enemy of the people’.

Ms Packham said officers saw Powell had posted online ‘images of the defendant’s dog with his paw raised with ‘sieg heil’ next to it’.

Jailing him for three years, judge Timothy Mousely QC said: “This was vile, offensive, abusive and threatening language which intended by you to incite racial hatred.

“I am quite satisfied that you demonstrated attitudes towards many different ethnic groups, religious groups and people of different sexualities which are abhorrent to most people and you’ve done it over a significant period of time.

“I am also quite satisfied that your views and the ways you’ve expressed them is particularly worrying, and deeply entrenched, and have been for many years.

“They’re far-reaching and they’re obsessive.”

Among the material found was an email titled ‘Brexit Stitch Up’ he wrote to then prime minister Theresa May describing her as a ‘snake’.

He also wrote a letter to MP Nick Gibbs about his concerns over Sharia law.

Powell, of Wythering Close, was found guilty of four charges of using threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour intending thereby to stir up racial hatred.

He denied the charges but was convicted by district judge Tan Ikram at Worthing Magistrates’ Court last month.

At his trial Powell claimed he was not racist and did not intend to stir up racial hatred.

Pierce Power, mitigating, said: ‘He’s certainly no Tommy Robinson, he’s in no position to influence anyone.

“He is what he is, which is a rather pathetic individual who holds unattractive views and nothing more serious than that.”

Detective Chief Superintendent Kath Barnes, head of the south east’s counter-terror policing unit, previously said: “Whilst this was not a terrorism case, the nature of the rhetoric Powell had shared on social media, meant that it was only right for specialist officers from Counter Terrorism Policing to conduct a thorough investigation.”

Bognor Observer

A RACIST lout is once again back behind bars over his latest bout of “nasty” abuse.

Ryan Breach admitted two racist harassment offences in Hove and Worthing.

The 31-year-old, with distinctive facial tattoos, has been in and out of prison, notably for breaching a court order which bans him from entering Brighton city centre.

He had shown a “wilful and persistent” disregard for court orders with “continuous breaches”.

Last month he appeared at Crawley Magistrates’ Court where he admitted two new offences.

The first was on August 15 last year where Breach racially abused Dr Stephan Weber in Hove.

He used abusive, insulting or threatening behaviour likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress.

Breach also admitted racist abuse towards Vinojan Vijayakmur in Worthing on October 10 last year.

Magistrate Gavin Oclee-Brown noted both crimes were “racially aggravated, nasty offences”.

Breach was jailed for a total of eight weeks and was ordered to pay £100 compensation to the victims.

The money will be deducted from his benefits.

Previously, The Argus reported how Breach was jailed in January for being “non-compliant” with orders designed to curb his antisocial behaviour.

Breach appeared in court on January 12, with magistrates sending him back to prison for 12 weeks.

In April 2019 Breach, now of Brighton Road, Selden, popped out of court for a “cigarette” break, and moments later was left unable to even stand up.

A court guard said: “He has been extremely aggressive and threatening. I think he has taken some sort of substance.

“We tried to carry him down the front stairs, he isn’t capable of walking.

“I think he has taken something while being inside here.

“He has been taken somewhere else. We won’t let him into the building.”

He told his defence solicitor Mark Rogers he was going to take a cigarette break.

Mr Rogers told the court that it was “a long cigarette break”.

When it was revealed that his client was not able to stand up, Mr Rogers said he was not aware of any alcohol problems with Breach, and said his client could be “a bit gobby”.

In July 2019, Breach attacked PC Samuel Bettles in the accident and emergency department at the Royal Sussex County Hospital, Brighton.

He also attacked PC Chelsie Maskell and PC James Roberts in police custody, and was jailed for 45 weeks.

In January last year he admitted attacking a woman police officer and breaching the order when he was seen in Surrey Street near the station.

On that occasion he was jailed for 20 weeks.

Brighton Argus

Robert Gregory, 24, who fantasised about killing former Prime Minister Theresa May, was jailed for four-and-a-half years after he pleaded guilty to terror offences

Robert Gregory pleaded guilty to terror offences and was sentenced to four-and-a-half years in jail after a judge condemned his “clear terrorist motivations” (Image: Dorset Police/Solent News)

An aspiring terrorist who fantasised about killing former Prime Minister Theresa May and blowing himself up in a mosque watched YouTube videos to find out how to make a bomb, a court heard.

Robert Gregory admitted watching two videos about how to construct explosives – one called ‘How to make a mini bomb’ and the other entitled ‘How to make a simple time bomb DIY’.

A court heard that when Gregory was asked about why he wanted to commit these violent attacks, he said: “I want to stand up for my people.”

The 24-year-old was caught when police discovered the online searches on his phone and seized his diary.

He pleaded guilty to terror offences and was sentenced to four-and-a-half years in jail after a judge condemned his “clear terrorist motivations”.

Winchester Crown Court heard that Gregory, from Bournemouth, committed the offences just eight days after being released on licence from prison, where he had been serving time for stabbing a homeless person when he was just 16.

In diary entries read to the court, Gregory wrote that he wanted to “stab” the then Prime Minister Theresa May and “kill as many MPs on road to Downing Street”.

He also wrote that he would like to “kill a news reporter live on TV” and “blow myself up in a mosque”.

Prosecutor Julia Faure Walker also revealed that he had searched “How to justify killing a Muslim” and “Where can I buy a gun in Bournemouth?” online.

Another diary entry from Gregory said that “not enough” people were killed in the Christchurch Mosque shootings in 2019 in which 51 people were shot dead by a white supremacist.

The diary entry read: “‘Got news of terror attack in New Zealand finally we are taking a stand.

“Why do Muslims continue to condemn attacks on their own people not the ones on us?”

Other diary entries involved Gregory asking if an attack is still a terror attack if the attacker is not Muslim and Gregory’s plans to recruit “troops” that he would radicalise over a period of time.

Another entry detailed plans to get in touch with ISIS to learn how to make a suicide vest.

It read: “Try to get hold of ISIS terrorist group once out of prison although I am not a Muslim so I can learn to make suicide vest.”

Gregory went on to suggest he could use the suicide vest at a gay pride event.

Ms Faure Walker told the court that one of the videos he watched in April 2019 showed how to make a bomb using card and fireworks and the other showed how to make a time bomb using household items including an analogue clock and a mouse trap.

When interviewed by police about the diary entries, Gregory denied he wrote them and claimed he got along with Muslims, the court heard.

Defending, Paul Wakerley told the court that the videos Gregory watched were easily accessed on YouTube – with the one about the time bomb having 845,237 views and the other one having 388,000 views.

“There was no specialist skill required to find these videos, they were found on YouTube,” he said.

Mr Wakerley said that Gregory’s views were not underpinned by extremism but rather by more general feelings of violence.

He said: “Many of the diary entries that are referred to are extremely difficult to to listen to but they are diary entries of a man in prison over the course of two years and they are not part of the offence that he is convicted with for his plea.”

Gregory pleaded guilty to two charges of collecting terrorist information.

Sentencing, Judge Jane Miller QC told him: “You had clear terrorist motivations. I assess that you present a very high risk of harm to the public.”

Gregory was also subjected to a terrorism notification order, which means he will be closely monitored for a period of 30 years.

Daily Mirror

The 22-year-old had denied all the offences

A Met Police officer who was convicted of being part of a banned neo-Nazi terrorist group has been jailed.

Benjamin Hannam, of Enfield, north London, was found guilty on 1 April of membership of the far-right extremist group National Action.

The 22-year-old was also convicted of fraud over lies on his police application and possessing documents useful to a terrorist.

He was jailed at the Old Bailey for four years and four months.

Hannam was the first serving British officer to be convicted of a terrorism offence.

Jurors found Hannam guilty of two counts of possessing documents useful to a terrorist and two counts of fraud.

The fraud involved over £66,000 he earned from the Met after joining in 2018, while the documents related to a knife-fighting guide and a manual written by Anders Behring Breivik – the man responsible for murdering 77 people in Norway in 2011.

Officers found a National Action business card and badges in Hannam’s bedroom

Judge Anthony Leonard QC said the offences were so serious that only a custodial term was appropriate.

He said the nature of anti-Semitic material held by Hannam was “horrible and deeply troubling”.

Timeline

Benjamin Hannam (second right) with other NA members

2016 – Joins NA and regularly attends meetings before the group was banned in December

2017 – Becomes a part of NA’s successor version called NS131 – which was also outlawed in September. His application to the Met is made in the summer, only days after he had attended an NS131 event

2018 – Enrols with Met Police and is passed out in front of Commissioner Dame Cressida Dick the following year

2020 – Arrested by police and subsequently charged

Judge Leonard told Hannam that he had “no doubt that your autism played a part in your offending”.

He said that, in committing fraud, the defendant had “abused the trust” of the police and public.

“You have harmed public trust in the police by your deceit,” he said.

Hannam remained in National Action from the time it was banned in December 2016 until September 2017.

The prosecution could not say that Hannam was preparing to make explosives or employ the knife-fighting techniques.

Hannam pleaded guilty to one count of possessing prohibited images of children – details of which were read out during the sentencing.

When his home was searched by detectives last year, his computer was found to contain a folder of “anime cartoons” of children and young people.

Prosecutor Dan Pawson-Pounds said: “Although most of the files in this folder did not show any sexual acts, there was a series of 12 drawings of the same hand-drawn girl, who appeared to be eight or nine years old, engaged in acts of intercourse.”

Some of the images showed the child, in a state of distress, being raped by an adult male.

Mr Pawson-Pounds said that aggravating features in relation to the prohibited images included the age of the child depicted, the “shock and upset” discernible on her face in some images, and the fact she was wearing a school uniform.

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